Global email address reputation system

Abstract

Systems and methods of filtering received messages to discard unsolicited messages using Silverlist filters and combinations of Silverlist filters and other types of filters are disclosed. In many embodiments, an appliance remote from a mail server is used to filter messages using at least a Silverlist filter prior to forwarding messages to the mail server. In a number of embodiments, a mail server applies a filtering process that includes a Silverlist filter and a challenge response filter. One embodiment of the invention includes a plurality of mail servers configured to maintain user mail accounts from which electronic mail messages can be exchanged via a network, a plurality of mail processing units connected to the network, where each mail processing unit acts as a gateway for at least one of the mail servers that filters incoming electronic mail messages, a global address reputation server connected to a global address reputation database and configured to communicate with the mail processing units via the network. In addition, at least one of the mail processing units is configured to track events associated with the filtering of electronic mail messages and forward tracked event information to the global address reputation server, the global address reputation server is configured to store event information received from the mail processing units in the global address reputation database, the global address reputation server is configured to develop sender reputation information concerning message senders from the event information stored in the global address reputation database, the global address reputation server is configured to provide sender reputation information concerning message senders to mail processing units, and at least one of the mail processing units that receives sender reputation information from the global address reputation server is configured to utilize the sender reputation information when filtering messages based upon the message sender.

Description

BACKGROUND[0001]The present invention relates generally to message processing systems and more specifically to message processing systems that filter messages believed to be unsolicited advertisements based upon the reputation of the message's sender.[0002]Unsolicited messages can pose a significant problem for users of message services such as email. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 136,697 to Golan et al. entitled “Electronic Mail Processing System Including Silverlist Filtering” discloses systems that use temporary failures to prevent users from receiving unsolicited messages sent from bulk mailing systems that do not fully implement SMTP. Many of the systems disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 136,697 also utilize a challenge and response process, which can be referred to as “sender address verification”, to verify that messages received by a mail server were sent by a human prior to forwarding the message to the recipient's mailbox. Silverlist filtering and send...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0036]Another embodiment of the method of the invention includes granting an authorized domain administrator acc

Problems solved by technology

Unsolicited messages can pose a significant problem for users of message services such as email.

Each temporary failure and sender address verification issued by a mail server introduces a delay in the receipt of a mail message.

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